The Role of Normative Age-Graded Transitions and Human Agency in Patterns and Variations of Financial Exploitation of Older Adults

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00224278221107516
• Author: Julie Brancale,Thomas G. Blomberg
• Date: 01 November 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Role of

Normative Age-

Graded Transitions

and Human Agency

in Patterns and

Variations of

Financial Exploitation

of Older Adults

Julie Brancale

1

and Thomas G. Blomberg

1

Abstract

Objectives: Drawing from normative age-graded transitions and human

agency, this study provides a theoretical and empirical exploration of the pat-

terns and variations of f‌inancial exploitation of older adults. Meth ods: The

study employs qualitative methods with data collected from focus groups

and interviews with residents of a large retirement community. Results:

Normative age-graded transitions—such as retirement, residency reloca-

tions, changes in social support networks, medical events, death or incapac-

itation of a spouse,grief, declines in brain and physical health and cognition—

lead to assessments of older adults’sense of self-eff‌icacy regarding their

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Julie Brancale, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 112 South

Copeland Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.

Email: julie.brancale@fsu.edu

Article

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2023, Vol. 60(6) 781–818

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00224278221107516

journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc

abilities to deal with everyday tasks, challenges, and decisions. If these

assessments result in lowered self-eff‌icacy, that reaches a threshold, cog-

nitive transformations can occur, producing an increased vulnerability for

f‌inancial exploitation. For those whose assessments of self-eff‌icacy

remained stable, f‌inancial exploitation was avoided. Conclusions: The role

of normative age-graded transitions and general assessments of self-eff‌i-

cacy, thresholds, and cog nitive transform ations provides a prom ising the-

oretical approach for explaining patterns and variations of f‌inancial

exploitation of older adults. These f‌indings, if conf‌irmed with more rep -

resentative samples, can help validate the role of normative age-graded

transitions and human agency in explaining why some, but not other,

older adults fall victim to f‌inancial exploitation.

Keywords

f‌inancial exploitation, victimization, life course, older adults, human agency

Introduction

Financial exploitation is the most common form of self-reported abuse by

older adults (Morgan and Mason 2014). Declines in physical and mental

capabilities and other commonly experienced age-related life changes,

coupled with perceptions of their wealth and vulnerability, have contributed

to making the older adult population a major target for f‌inancial exploitation

(Deane 2018). Moreover, older adult f‌inancial exploitation victims are at an

increased risk for psychological and emotional harm and are three times

more likely to die at an earlier age than are older adults who have not

been victimized (National Adult Protective Services Association 2014).

It is diff‌icult to accurately estimate the national prevalence of f‌inancial

exploitation of older adults because numerous cases go unrepor ted and there

are multiple forms of f‌inancial exploitation. Burnes et al. (2017) conducted a

meta-analysis of studies that have assessed the prevalence of f‌inancial exploi-

tation of older adults and found that 5.4% of older adults reported falling victim

each year. Although available prevalenceratesarelikelytobeunderestimates,

there is widespread recognition that f‌inancial exploitation of older adults is a

signif‌icant social problem that is expected to increase along with the rapidly

growing older adult population (Deane 2018; Lichtenberg et al. 2015).

Beyond uncertainty in the prevalence of f‌inancial exploitation of older

adults is an associated lack of theoretical understanding. Most of the prior

782 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 60(6)

studies have been focused upon exploring risk factors (James et al. 2014)

and available theoretical frameworks have not been found to be capable

of capturing the complexity of the problem (Jackson and Hafemeister

2013; Lee and Geistfeld 1999; Lee and Soberon-Ferrer 1997; Rabiner,

O’Keeffe, and Brown 2005). For example, Shao et al. (2019) argued that

understanding individual-level differences in the f‌inancial exploitation of

older adults has been a neglected area of study and existing theories have

yet to provide compelling explanations for why not all older adults who

are targeted become victims of f‌inancial exploitation. Financial exploitation

of older adults is multidimensional and can involve declines in physical and

cognitive functioning, emotions, grief and loss, changing attachments to

others, and changing situational contexts. As a result, a theoretical frame-

work capable of capturing the complex relationships between individual

older adults’health, psychological, emotional, and changing social circum-

stances is required (DeLiema 2015; Shao et al. 2019).

Many of the identif‌ied correlates of f‌inancial exploitation (e.g., changes

to life circumstances, daily activities, and social bonds and networks, and

declining physical and cognitive health) involve what the life course per-

spective has termed transitions, which include normative age-graded life

events (Elder 1994, 1998). While all older adults experience many, if not

most, of these normative transitions, not all fall victim to f‌inancial exploita-

tion. Consequently, while the identif‌ied correlates reveal relationships

between aging, associated life transitions, and f‌inancial exploitation, they

do not provide a causal or predictive function capable of explaining not

only patterned relationships, but variations in these relationships. In sum,

while f‌inancial exploitation of older adults is the most frequently reported

form of abuse among this fastest growing segment of the population in

the United States, our empirical and theoretical understanding remains frag-

mented and incomplete.

The current study responds to this identif‌ied void in the literature by pro-

viding a theoretically guided study of f‌inancial exploitation of older adults.

The study employs data from focus groups and interviews with residents of

one of the largest active-living retirement communities in the United States

(Maverick 2021). According to the 2020 Census, the retirement community

was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States; it spans

across multiple counties and over 30,000 acres in North-Central Florida

and has a resident population that exceeds 115,000. While the retirement

community is tailored for active older adults with numerous restaurants,

sports clubs, and social organizations, it has begun adding various assisted

living, memory care, and medical facilities.

Brancale and Blomberg 783